Tag Archives: philanthropy

Corporate employees are often not successful at virtual volunteering. Why?

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In the 1990s, when I began promoting virtual volunteering – people engaging in volunteer roles and tasks via their computer from home, work, or wherever else they might be – many corporations balked at the idea of allowing employees to from their desktops. The reason given was usually that it would take away from employee’s productivity and profitability on behalf the company. The Disney Corporation happily put an item in their employee newsletter about virtual volunteering back in the late 1990s, but talked about it being a great thing employees could do from home, after work.

Now, almost 30 years later, I’m seeing a new trend: people promoting virtual volunteering as a great way for corporate employees to engage in philanthropy – in this case, the giving of their time and expertise – from their workspace, whether that workspace is at home or onsite at the company, but claiming that one of the benefits is that it is “time agnostic”, as one company put it: you do it when you have some extra time between work responsibilities, and it doesn’t come with all the challenges of traditional volunteering, like taking up SO much time.

I’ve seen this kind of thinking from the corporate world about all volunteering, not just virtual volunteering, and the results are poor, even disastrous, for the nonprofit, charity, school, NGO or community group trying to engage that employee as a volunteer:

  • The employee never does find that “extra” time in the work day, or after the work day, to complete the assignment. This is because, for volunteering to happen, you have to make the time for it – even if that time is at 8 p.m. in the evening, for an hour, that time has to be reserved and honored.
  • The employer is thrilled to celebrate that employees are undertaking virtual volunteering, but balk at the idea of the employee setting aside time during the work day to do it. Mentoring that young person or designing that brochure suddenly is not something the employer wants employees focused on – there is WORK to be done!
  • Both the employer and the employee don’t treat the host agency as a client, with real deadlines and real needs. Yes, very often virtual volunteering can be done on your own schedule, but only up to a point: there is a deadline associated with the role or task, or their are meetings or real-time, online activities associated with the task. If the volunteer doesn’t fulfill that role or task, the client – the nonprofit, the charity, the school, etc. – suffers. For one example, think about that student expecting to be mentored: what are the consequences for that student when the mentor cancels repeatedly? What does this do to one of the program goals, which was to build a trusting relationship between a mentor and that student?

Virtual volunteering is REAL volunteering, and so much of the “rules” of traditional volunteering still apply. Commitments are REAL. Deadlines are REAL. There’s nothing “virtual” about it. Corporations need to have strategies to address all of the aforementioned bullet points if they want virtual volunteering to actually make a difference for anyone.

cover of Virtual Volunteering book with hands raising up various Internet connected devices

If only there was a detailed guide that could better guarantee their success in their virtual volunteering endeavors… oh, wait, there is! The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook is for those that to dig deep into the factors for success in supporting online volunteers and keeping virtual volunteering a worthwhile endeavor for everyone involved. You will not find a more detailed guide anywhere than The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook. It’s based on many years of experience, from a variety of organizations. It’s like having me do an in-depth analysis of your program, or me helping you set up your own program, but without having to pay my hourly rate as a consultant! It’s available both as a traditional print publication and as a digital book.

If you have benefited from any of my blogs or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help.

When nonprofits don’t like your pro bono expertise

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It can be just one person volunteering their expertise or a group of people from the business world gathering together to leverage their expertise for a nonprofit. They may build apps or create communications plans or build web sites for nonprofits. And this type of pro bono consulting can be a terrific thing: the nonprofit gets something it needs, and the expert volunteers, usually from the corporate sector, may get a team-building and/or networking event that also checks a corporate social responsibility (CSR) box.

But it doesn’t always work out that way. Sometimes, at the end of that hackathon, the nonprofit doesn’t get the app it needs. Sometimes, at the end of that build-a-thon, the nonprofit doesn’t get the revamped web site it was counting on to replace its current, out-dated site, or gets a site that does not at all meet its requirements.

Sometimes, it’s not a huge deal that the pro bono consulting doesn’t work out. I once helped with a brainstorming session for a nonprodit that the branch of a very well-known consulting firm wanted to do. The employees were excited that they could offer free consulting regarding how to better market the nonprofit’s programs. Imagine my disappointment when I realized the consultants hadn’t read any of the material they had been sent beforehand, and therefore they had a complete misunderstanding of our programs. I spent the majority of the brainstorming session explaining the programs of the nonprofit, and we were left empty-handed regarding any strategies or new insights. But all I lost was, altogether, a full-day of work, in terms of setup and the actual meeting; I have to admit I wasn’t really expecting much from this “partnership.” The nonprofit did get a photo of the employees altogether in a room, looking interested as a nonprofit staff person spoke, and we both got to use that photo in a variety of marketing material.

But I’ve been involved in organizing volunteering events where volunteers from the business sector are supposed to, at the end of the day, have created something tangible that the participating nonprofits need, and the nonprofit’s disappointment is not just a minor inconvenience: that nonprofit participated specifically to get that graphic or app or marketing strategy or web site, and now they are left in the lurch. They were counting on this volunteer endeavor to result in something they could use. And when the nonprofit staff realize that despite all of their own work – and that would be extra work, on top of their day-to-day responsibilities – they are leaving empty-handed, their frustration can turn into anger and bad public relations.

How does it happen?

  • The corporate volunteers didn’t take the commitment seriously, didn’t budget time for their participation, etc.
  • The corporate volunteers didn’t learn about the nonprofit beforehand, didn’t treat the nonprofit the way they would a paying client, didn’t listen to the nonprofit staff, etc.
  • The corporate volunteers just wanted to say, “We volunteered an entire Saturday helping so-and-so. Here’s some photos of us volunteering.”

If you are organizing a hackathon or other event meant to result in a tangible product for a nonprofit, please remember to temper expectations:

  • Emphasize to volunteers that the nonprofits are their clients. The volunteers need to treat the nonprofits the way they would paying clients: their needs are real, and if their needs aren’t met, if they aren’t listened to, they have every right to complain.
  • Be honest about what the nonprofit really is going to have at the end of this hackathon, build-a-thon or other volunteering project. Don’t hype expectations.
  • Be clear about what nonprofits can expect from volunteers in terms of support after the event. And it’s worth noting that, in my experience, no matter how much volunteers say they will continue to support the nonprofit with the hackathon or build-a-thon is over, when the event ends, the volunteers scatter and the nonprofit is on its own with the resulting app, graphics, marketing plan, web site, whatever.
  • Be honest about the possibility that not every nonprofit walks away with something they can use. If you have been doing this program for a while, say what percentage that might be: “Of the 20 participating nonprofits, we find that at least 2, unfortunately, don’t end up with a usable web site.” You might want to emphasize the experimental nature of what is happening, that this is a change for two groups from different sectors to get to know each other and have fun, and that the resulting product is a somewhat secondary goal (although, please remember that nonprofit staff are underpaid and overworked – they may not be looking for a feel-good event right now).
  • Consider scheduling a low-profile makeup session that will take place two or three weeks after the main event, where select, veteran volunteers will gather and ensure the “left out” nonprofits DO get the finished product they signed up for. Have the date for this after-main-event makeup function on the calendar and book committed volunteers to participate at the same time you are putting together your main event, so that you can say with confidence to disappointed nonprofits: “We have a makeup event scheduled for such-and-such date and we already have volunteers lined up and we will get your needs taken care of.” In fact, you may want to pay the people who are going to do the makeup work – even just a stipend – to better guarantee they show up and get the job done.
  • Let nonprofits grade their experience participating in the event and their experience with the volunteers specifically; volunteers with low grades don’t get to participate in the future, or have to go through some sort of training that will help them not let nonprofits down in the future.
  • Consider paying nonprofits for their participation. A stipend of $500 to a nonprofit can offset any hard feelings for, at the end of the day, not having that app, graphic, marketing strategy or web site that they were supposed to get per their participation.

Does it all seem like too much? Are you thinking, “Hey, nonprofits should be glad they are getting free expertise, no matter how it works out for them!”? Then, please, don’t do these events for nonprofits, because all you are doing is creating unrealistic expectations and a lot of disappointment. The work of nonprofits is serious and their staff members are grossly underpaid – if they are paid at all. They don’t have time for unfunded experiments and feel-good corporate team-building social events. Show them the respect they deserve!

Also see:

If you have benefited from this blog, my other blogs, or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help. 

NOTE: I’m taking August off from weekly blogging. See you in September!

What should my next virtual volunteering video be?

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Since the start of the global pandemic last year, I have been creating and sharing videos to help organizations understand virtual volunteering and to quickly create roles and activities for online volunteers. I share them on my YouTube channel. These videos include:

I’m a professional consultant, and I cannot pay my bills with my goodwill and sharing free videos. However, sacrificing some – indeed, a lot – of my potential income to try to mitigate at least some of the negative impacts of the pandemic on nonprofits has been my way of feeling like I’m doing something worthwhile in this intense, tough time, as a way to feel not quite so helpless.

So, let me continue to try to help in my own small way: what would you like my next free training about virtual volunteering to be? What is a subject I could cover in just 5 to 15 minutes that would help your nonprofit, charity, school, NGO, library or other cause-based program regarding virtual volunteering? Please note the subject you need most in the comments below.

cover of Virtual Volunteering book with hands raising up various Internet connected devices

While I don’t think these videos nor my blogs are a substitute for reading my book, The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook, I do believe that the information can help nonprofits who already have experience involving volunteers in traditional settings – onsite, face-to-face – pivot quickly in creating roles and tasks for online volunteers. But if you want to deeply integrate virtual volunteering into your program and expand your engagement of online volunteers, such as in an online mentoring program or other scheme where online volunteers will interact with clients, you will not find a more detailed guide anywhere for working with online volunteers and using the Internet to support and involve all volunteers – even after home quarantines are over and volunteers start coming back onsite to your workspace. And purchasing the book is far, far cheaper than hiring me as a consultant or trainer regarding virtual volunteering – though you can still do that!

Also, FYI, please note my videos that aren’t specifically about virtual volunteering, including:

Looking forward to reading your suggestions!

Creating One-Time, Short-Term Group Volunteering Opportunities

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I was shocked when I looked to see what page on my web site got the most visits in 2019. I knew that the most popular pages would be from the section of my web site for volunteers themselves, a section I started because I got tired of writing the same answers over and over to Frequently Asked Questions on YahooAnswers, Quora, Reddit, etc. I knew these pages would be the most popular because I post links to them constantly on those and other online communities. But tucked away in those web site visitor stats was this page, for programs that host volunteers, or want to:

Creating One-Time, Short-Term Volunteering Opportunities for Groups.

I haven’t done anything special to promote this web page. I post a link to it a few times a year on my various social media channels, I post a link to it if someone asks for advice on how to do it, but that’s it. And, yet, there it is, a hugely popular page on my web site in 2019.

So MANY different kinds of groups want a group volunteering experience where they feel like they show up, they volunteer, they have fun together, they make a difference, they get great photos, and then they leave. But he reality is that, for most nonprofits and community programs, these group volunteers aren’t worth the trouble to involve. Most nonprofits and community programs do NOT have volunteering tasks laying around that could be done by a large group of untrained, one-time volunteers – or even an untrained individual volunteer. Most organizations also do not have the money, staff, time and other resources to create two-hour, half-day or one-day, one-time group volunteering activities, especially for teens and children.

This is really hard for group representatives to hear, especially from corporations. The reaction is what?! you don’t have something for my group of 15 people from our marketing and sales departments to do this Friday from 10 to 12:30? No. No, we don’t. And you don’t have something in your marketing or sales department for a group of 15 temps to do from 10 to 12:30 either, so don’t act surprised.

My page has a list of possible activities for groups, but I also note that all of these activities, and any other group volunteering activities that aren’t listed, take many hours by the organization to prepare the site for the group of volunteers to show up, engage in the activity, and leave after two-to-seven hours – and to leave the site in such a way that the organization or program isn’t left with even more work for staff. That includes hackathons and program consultations. That’s why I believe your group should MAKE A FINANCIAL DONATION TO THE ORGANIZATION where you want to have your group volunteering experience. Yup: you need to pay money to the organization you expect to host your volunteering group, to cover at least some of the many costs they incur by creating this experience for your group.

My formula: donate $50 per hour your group will be there per staff member the nonprofit or other hosting agency will have to provide for preparation and supervision – regardless of whether or not that staff member is a volunteer or a paid person at the host organization. So, if your company or group wants a two-hour experience, and the volunteer hosting organization will need to have two people supervising and supporting your group, that’s $200. If your group wants a four-hour experience, and it will take just one nonprofit staff member, that’s also $200 your group is going to donate to the nonprofit. And, no, “in-kind” donations don’t count: it needs to be actual money.

I’m glad my page about volunteering activities for groups has proven so popular. I just hope it’s not just nonprofits and other volunteer hosting organizations that are reading it.

If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help. 

What should be on a corporation’s website re: CSR

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If your company has a corporate philanthropy program – it gives money to nonprofits, it supports nonprofit events by buying a table or other sponsorships, its employees volunteer as a part of a volunteer leave program or at events in partnership with the company – it should have at least a page on its website that offers an overview of these activities and your reasons for engaging in such.

Having corporate social responsibility information on a company’s web site not only helps communicate to people outside the company: it also helps a business’s employees to understand the company’s CSR activities and philosophy. Remember that ALL employees and consultants are potential messengers regarding a business’s CSR activities – they need to have a reliable reference point when friends, family and others ask them questions about their company. Having this information on the company web site ensures that there is a uniform message regarding CSR activities.

The link to a company’s CSR information can be on its home page, but most companies put the link on their “About Us” page. 

Here’s what absolutely needs to be on a company’s web site regarding its CSR activities:

  • A statement that provides an overview of the company’s CSR policy, especially with regards to its commitment to a particular cause or the community where employees work, send their children to school, etc.
  • An overview of what the company’s employees do as volunteers and how employee volunteering activities are structured (do they volunteer during company hours, as part of an official program or are employees encouraged to volunteer outside of work hours, but entirely independently? Is the company looking for volunteering opportunities that groups of employee volunteers can do together? Is the company looking for volunteering opportunities that groups of employee volunteers can do with their families?).
  • Information on how a nonprofit, non-governmental organization (NGO), school or other initiative can invite a company’s employees to volunteer with them.
  • An overview of how the company makes financial or in-kind donations, including sponsorships, and information on how a nonprofit, non-governmental organization (NGO), school or other initiative can apply for funds for financial and in-kind donations and sponsorships. If the company does not make financial or in-kind donations, nor purchase sponsorships, it should say so explicitly on its web site.
  • An overview of the financial contributions they company and employees make to the community – not just in donations, not just employee donation matching, but in tax payments to city, county, state and federal treasuries through tax payments.
  • Anything the company requires on the web sites of organizations it funds.

What can also be on a company’s web site regarding CSR activities:

  • An overview of what the company does to be a good to the environment. Does the company recycle materials that employees produce in the workplace? Does the company use recycled materials in its workplace? Does the company recycle all of its old computers, printers, smart phones and other electronics in an environmentally-appropriate way? Does the company have programs that encourage employees to carpool and use mass transit?
  • An overview of the company’s commitment to ethical business practices such as fair hiring, pay equality, safe working environments, adhering to fiduciary responsibilities, having an employee handbook with policies regarding harassment and discrimination, etc. If “corporations are people,” then this information is a must.
  • A statement of the company’s commitment to having an accessible web site, one that meets at least the basic guidelines for digital inclusion (videos are captions, people who have sight-impairments can navigate the web site because it’s been designed so that their assistive technology tools can navigate it, etc.).
  • Photos, videos and other updates about the company’s CSR activities.
  • Evaluations of the company’s CSR programs and their impact. What difference has employee volunteering made for nonprofits? Remember, that doesn’t mean a number of hours or a dollar value for those hours – it means how nonprofit clients or the community actually benefited from the time and talent.

It’s a good idea to invite representatives from nonprofits, charities and schools to provide feedback about a company’s online information about CSR activities. Can they find what they are looking for? Did they understand how to apply for funds – or understand that the company does not give financial donations? This can be done with a focus group or by simply offering a feedback form on the web site.

Look at the site’s web analytics regularly to make sure online CSR  information is being viewed and to see how web visitors are being directed to this information. Are they finding it using keywords in a search engine? From links from a certain page on the web site? Links from a nonprofit blog?

For more tips, see my list index of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) resources & advice for ethics, strategies & operations.

If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help. 

Disrupting Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

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logoCorporate social responsibility (CSR) means financial donations by for-profit businesses, as well as in-kind donations, employee volunteering or taking on community roles as a representative of a company, such as serving on an advisory board at a nonprofit or government group. CSR also includes commitments and demonstrated action regarding responsible or sustainable environmental practices, pay equality, safe working environments, etc., beyond what is required by law.

Nonprofits, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), charities, schools and other mission-based organizations have wanted to say some things quite frankly to corporations and foundations, but they have been afraid to, for fear of losing their funding.

These organizations are tired of being mocked by the corporate world for not being innovative while also being denied overhead funding necessary to be able to experiment and explore innovation. They are tired of hackathons developing apps that their clients will never use because stakeholders were never consulted. They are tired of being expected to attend roundtable discussions and conferences to talk about serious social issues but not having their time paid for regarding these consultations to give corporations and foundations “insight.” They are tired of having  “executives on loan” from a high-tech company for six months who are more burdens than help.

I’ve even had public school teachers tell me how much they want to tell the big high tech company in their city “no” to its offer to “help” because the company’s ideas are more about good photo opps for the company than actually supporting learning goals – in fact, the company’s ideas take away from essential classroom learning time.

These folks feel they can’t make their complaints known about the attitudes of the for-profit world, so they tell me, in low voices over coffee. They are stressed out – they want a good relationship with the for-profit world, they want volunteers from corporations, but they want to be listened to, they want partnerships to be equal, and they want t

As an independent consultant, I have more freedom to speak than these colleagues. There are things I’ve always wanted to say to the for-profit world about how they approach financial donations, in-kind donations, employee volunteering and other corporate social responsibility (CSR). So I decided it was time to finally say them: I’ve launched a new section on my web site that targets corporations, whether large or small, regarding Corporate Social Responsibility.

My advice is meant to be provocative. It’s meant to be disruptive. Because I believe that CSR is long overdue for some serious disruption.

In my opinion, most CSR-related resources are more concerned with feel-good publicity and have an attitude that mission-based organizations are run by amateurs who chose their professions because they couldn’t make it in the “real” world. There’s a disturbing belief that businesses know better than nonprofits and should, therefore, use their financial gifts to push nonprofits, even public schools, into the directions businesses feel are best.

A lot of people, including several high-profit politicians and the US Supreme Court, believe corporations are “people.” Okay, if that’s the case, then every business, whether a tech-savvy startup, a small storefront or a large corporation, is a citizen of a community: that company’s employees and customers live and work somewhere, and how the employees do their work, how they travel to and for work, and how that work is produced or services are provided impacts neighborhoods, people, cultures and the environment, positively and negatively. No business, no corporation, not even a consultant working at home, is an island that has no impact on other places or people, near or far.

That impact comes with responsibilities, costs and consequences – financial costs, environmental costs and cultural impacts. Maybe farmland becomes industrial lands and housing, small towns become bedroom communities, the land where a popular bowling alley stands becomes so valuable that the prosperous business owners sell and retire – and the community loses a beloved gathering place.

Many of the financial costs that communities, neighborhoods and individuals have to shoulder that result from corporate/business prosperity are not covered by taxes – especially in this day and age of massive tax breaks for corporations and other for-profit companies. Many people are struggling to address those additional costs without any additional funding, while corporations and other businesses experience record profits and larger-than-ever tax breaks.

It’s from that reality that my web pages of advice regarding corporate social responsibility (CSR) have been developed. Expect to be challenged, because my advice is quite different from most, and maybe all, of the other advice you may have been reading or hearing.

Also see:

Charity isn’t enough

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The current Presidential administration in the USA wants to cut federal funding for a range of programs, including Special Olympics. Betsy DeVos, the President’s Secretary of Education, says it’s because these programs “enjoy robust support from private donations.”

Charity has never been enough to address homelessness, illiteracy, maternal health problems, gaps in education, the needs by those affected by domestic violence, the needs of people with disabilities, and on and on. Charity isn’t enough to promote the arts (arts involvement isn’t just nice – it’s essential to a whole range of quality of life issues), maintain public lands, and on and on. Charity is essential – but, alone, it will NEVER be enough, for Special Olympics or any other ESSENTIAL program. There MUST be government funding – tax dollars – for human service, environment, education and arts programs to be more than little feel-good PR moments benefitting just a small group of people.

My mother announced when I was 14 that I would be volunteering to escort the Henderson County team to the state Special Olympics in Bowling Green, Kentucky – a cousin was involved in organizing and this was how we, as a family, would support her – with me. Yes, it was a “voluntold” moment. I had never been around people with developmental disabilities and I had no idea what Special Olympics was and I had no idea who Eunice Shriver, the featured speaker, was. I won’t say I entirely understood it all at 14, but that participation changed ME for life and how I relate to people with developmental disabilities. It put me on a lifetime journey of trying to understand – all because of volunteering at one Special Olympics event. It wasn’t just a “nice” thing to be involved, not a oh, look at these poor children isn’t their spirit adorable thing – it was a TRANSFORMATION, for athlete, family member, volunteer and audience alike. This is so much more than “charity.” And government support is necessary for it to be anything more than a few small events here and there.

In fact, the Oregon Special Olympics keeps canceling events because of lack of funding. Special Olympics Oregon lost $325,000 on $4.5 million in revenue in 2016, lost more in 2017, and expects to lose money again in 2018, according to a news release. The reality is that corporations and other funders are NOT stepping up to fulfill the needs of Special Olympics.

The San Francisco Bay Area, including Silicon Valley, has rapidly become the richest region in the country. It’s a place where $100,000 Teslas are commonplace, unfiltered “raw water” goes for $37 a jug, and companies pay mega bucks for parties for employees, featuring high-profile comedians and other celebrities. Yet Sacred Heart Community Service, a San Jose nonprofit that helps low-income families with food, clothing, heating bills, and other services, actually received less in individual donations from the community in 2017 than it did the previous year. “We’re still not sure what it could be attributed to,” Jill Mitsch, the funds development manager at Sacred Heart, said in this story about corporate profits and philanthropy in Silicon Valley. It’s not the only nonprofit trying to keep donations up—the United Way of Silicon Valley folded in 2016 amidst stagnant contributions. Here’s more in this story. Record homelessness, record numbers of people needing health care, more and more polarization in society, more and more social isolation, less and less feelings of community – and, yet, Silicon Valley is holding on tightly to its wealth and not investing in the nonprofits that cannot keep up with demand.

Charity isn’t enough. In fact, volunteering, by itself, isn’t enough to save the world. But that’s another blog…

Also see:

review of latest data on volunteering in the USA

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The Corporation for National Service has released its annual report on volunteering in the USA. And, once again, the way they present the data, and the old-fashioned view of volunteering, has disappointed me greatly.

How was the data gathered? I can’t find anything on the web site to tell me. How many people were interviewed? Or how many organizations provided data regarding their volunteers? Where is a report I can read, to get more in-depth info, not just graphics and summary paragraphs? I spent a lot of time on the web site and searching on Google and cannot find this information anywhere.

Once again, the Corporation is focused on a dollar value for measuring the impact of volunteering: “Over the past 15 years, Americans volunteered 120 billion hours, estimated to be worth $2.8 trillion” and in the year for this report, volunteers gave $167 billion in economic value. That’s right – volunteers mean you can eliminate paid staff! And also contributes to the mistaken belief that volunteers are free (they aren’t).

The Corporation summary of the report breaks down volunteering activities in these categories:

  • Fundraise or sell items to raise money
  • Collect, prepare, distribute, or serve food
  • Collect, make or distribute clothing, crafts, or goods other than food.
  • Mentor youth
  • Tutor or teach
  • Engage in general labor; supply transportation for people
  • Provide professional or management assistance including serving on a board or committee
  • Usher, greeter, or minister
  • Engage in music, performance, or other artistic activities
  • Coach, referee, or supervise sports teams
  • Provide general office services
  • Provide counseling, medical care, fire/EMS, or protective services
  • Other types of volunteer activity

Sigh… so, where do these common volunteering activities go?

  • Participating in hackathons and wikipedia edit-a-thons? What if I’m not doing anything at the computer – I’m walking around serving drinks?
  • Supporting artistic activities but not actually supplying them? Would a theater usher be under the “usher” category or hear?
  • Volunteering to register voters go?

And what about this range of typical virtual volunteering activities go?

  • Managing an online discussion group
  • Facilitating an online video chat/event
  • creating web pages (designing the pages or writing the content)
  • editing or writing proposals, press releases, newsletter articles, video scripts, etc.
  • transcribing scanned documents
  • monitoring the news to look for specific subjects
  • managing social media activities
  • tagging photos and files

And, as always: where is the information about the resources it takes to engage volunteers? It takes money and time – yet the report never says a word about this. Volunteers do not magically happen.

I have all the same complaints about CNCS and its report on volunteerism that I had in 2014, so I won’t repeat myself here. But please, CNCS, read it. Drag yourself into the 21st Century and let’s get the data we truly need to help politicans and the general public understand and value volunteerism.

#GoVolunteer

Also see:

Free guide updated: Basic Fundraising for Small NGOs/Civil Society in the Developing World

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I’ve updated Basic Fundraising for Small NGOs/Civil Society in the Developing World for the first time in four years. I swore I wouldn’t anymore, and even said so on my web site… it’s quite the beast of a project, given that it’s entirely unfunded work. And I’ve been updating it since 2004.

But the continued pleas on sites like Quora from small NGOs in Asia and Africa, including very specific questions about crowdsourcing, a topic not covered in the 2015 version of the document, prompted me to spend oh-so-many hours updating it.

The PDF book is now 41 pages long and is available to download, for free, from my web site. It includes chapters on:

  • Fundraising: Some Things You Should NEVER Do
  • Networking & Establishing Credibility
  • Guidelines for Integrity, Transparency & Accountability
  • Using Social Media to Build Credibility
  • Absolute Essential Preparations To Solicit Donations
  • Finding Donors & Making Contact
  • Proposal Writing
  • Ethical Principles in Fundraising
  • Crowdfunding & Online Donations
  • Beware of Fundraising Scams
  • Financial Sustainability Action Planning
  • Individuals Raising Money in Another Country for Your NGO

The work of small community-based organizations (CBOs)/civil society organizations (CSOs)/non- governmental organizations (NGOs) in developing countries, collectively, is vital to millions of people. There is no group or institution doing more important work than CBOs / CSOs & NGOs. They represent local people and local decision-making. They often are the only group representing minority voices and the interests of those most-marginalized in a community. I call them mission- based organizations: they are organizations that exist, primarily, to fulfill a mission. They have a mission-statement that is supposed to guide all of their activities – in contrast to a business, which exists to make profits.

Financial support for their vital work, however, is hard to come by, and staff at these organizations, whether paid or unpaid (volunteer), have, usually, never had training in how to raise funds, what different funding streams can look like (individual donors, foundation grants, corporate grants, fees-for-service, government contracts-for- service, etc.), or how to maintain an accounting of funds.

I can’t solve this challenge with a book, but I hope I can give these NGOs the most basic information they need to secure funding. I hope it also helps consultants who are trying to help these small NGOs in developing countries.

Will I update it again? Not any time soon, barring the correction of some egregious mistakes, and maybe not at all. I need money too, folks. I need to devote my energy to projects that pay me. Please read more about my consulting services and let me know if you might like to work together!

vvbooklittleA resource that isn’t free but is very much worth your investment – at least I think so – is The LAST Virtual Volunteering Guidebook. The book, which I co-wrote with Susan Ellis, extensive, detailed suggestions and specifics about using the Internet to support and involve volunteers: virtual volunteering. It includes task and role development, suggestions on support and supervision of online volunteers, guidelines for evaluating virtual volunteering activities, suggestions for risk management, online safety, ensuring client and volunteer confidentiality and setting boundaries for relationships in virtual volunteering, and much more. The LAST Virtual Volunteering Guidebook is available both as a traditional printed book and as a digital book.

Also see:

Crowdsourcing / Hive Mind – it’s been happening since at least 1849!

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Crowdsourcing is an open, public call for contributions from anyone to talk about a pressing issue, offer advice or data or to help solve a problem or challenge. It’s an open-call brainstorming session. While the term crowdsourcing was popularized online to describe Internet-based activities, there are examples of projects that, in retrospect, can also be described as crowdsourcing, without the Internet.

For instance, in, 1848 Matthew Fontaine Maury, an American astronomer, United States Navy officer, historian, oceanographer, meteorologist, cartographer and more, distributed 5000 copies of his Wind and Current Charts free of charge on the condition that sailors returned a standardized log of their voyage to the U.S. Naval Observatory. By 1861, he had distributed 200,000 copies free of charge, on the same conditions. The data the sailors provided was used to develop charts for all the major trade routes.

The Smithsonian Meteorological Project was started by the Smithsonian’s first Secretary, Joseph Henry, and in 1849 he set up a network of some 150 volunteer weather observers all over the USA. Henry used the telegraph to gather volunteers’ data and create a large weather map, making new information available to the public daily. For instance, volunteers tracked a tornado passing through Wisconsin and sent the findings via telegraph to the Smithsonian. Henry’s project is considered the origin of what later became the National Weather Service. Within a decade, the project had more than 600 volunteer observers and had spread to Canada, Mexico, Latin America, and the Caribbean. These remote volunteers submitted monthly reports that were then analyzed by a professor at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, and published in 1861 in the first of a two- volume compilation of climatic data and storm observations based on the volunteers’ reports.

The Smithsonian information in this blog is from a 2011 article “Smithsonian Crowdsourcing Since 1849!” by Elena Bruno, a Smithsonian intern who conducted research into how crowdsourcing could be integrated into mobile applications and making the Smithsonian experience, for those inside our Institution and beyond, more valuable and engaging.

I miss the crowdsourcing feel of the 1990s Internet, particularly via USENET newsgroups. My favorite was soc.org.nonprofit, for the discussion of nonprofit organization management issues. It was amazing to see someone post a question about how to reach a particular audience or databases or whatever and see knowledgeable people offer helpful advice on the subject within days, sometimes hours. There was lots of help and very little posturing – or trolls. Good times. Read more about the Early History of Nonprofits and the Internet (before 1996).

 

vvbooklittleOnline crowdsourcing is one example of virtual volunteering. Wikipedia is probably the most well-known example of online crowdsourcing, but there are many more. For advice on working with remote volunteers, or using the Internet to support and involve volunteers, whether in crowdsourcing initiatives or in more formal, higher-responsibility volunteering, check out The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook. It’s written by myself and Susan J. Ellis, and is the result of many, many years of research and experience.